State semifinal bound

Tuesday

Jan 29, 2013 at 11:28 PM

Lately, an avalanche of offense has led to the Trinity Catholic girls soccer team posting a series of 8-0 mercy-rule shortened victories, first in the District 2A-6 tournament and then in the first two rounds of the FHSAA regional playoffs.

By John PattonCorrespondent

Lately, an avalanche of offense has led to the Trinity Catholic girls soccer team posting a series of 8-0 mercy-rule shortened victories, first in the District 2A-6 tournament and then in the first two rounds of the FHSAA regional playoffs.

The script was a bit different, though the result was the same in Tuesday night’s 1-0 Class 2A, Region 2 final victory at Orlando Lake Highland Prep.

And now, for the second consecutive year, the Celtics will play in the state semifinals. Last season, the road to a championship ended with a loss at Jacksonville Bolles. This Friday at 7 p.m., Trinity will host Pensacola Catholic for the right to travel to Melbourne to play the Miami Gulliver Prep-Palm Beach Benjamin winner the 2A title game.

The Celtics (18-2) spent most of Tuesday evening’s contest putting pressure on the Highlanders’ defense.

Trinity Catholic finally broke through for the game’s lone goal in the 59th minute when Sidney Jimenez threw an inbounds pass to Alyssa Eashoo, who immediately kicked it back. Jimenez then directed a 12-yard pass to Tabby Tindell, who leaped and headed the ball into the net.

“I was impressed with those players,” said Elias, whose team topped LHP, 4-1, in the same round last year.

Mosley had just three saves, but her first was a doozy, laying out to knock a shot away.

She also was instrumental in foiling the Highlanders’ offensive gameplan.

Lake Highland Prep spent the majority of the contest attempting to pass over the top of the Celtics’ midfielder and defenders. More often than not, teammates in front of Mosley thwarted those tries, but the senior also aggressively ran up a few times to shut down any hopes the Highlanders had.

Meanwhile, Trinity played its normal game, working the ball upfield with short, crisp passes.

“(LHP) played longball, and longball doesn’t work (against us),” Elias said. “They couldn’t make two or three good passes in a row. We did that, and that’s why we were able to dominate.”